World War II Memorial

April 29, 2007 at 10:54 am | In Hold that line!, Laying it the line ;-), Lineup | Leave a Comment

Look at these pictures of the World War II Memorial that I took yesterday.

Very touching wreaths especially one that was from a High School Class of 1944 with a picture of a young man, probably from his high school year book. He most probably was killed in action…..

Then I think of the 14,000,000 men and women (they were referred to as ‘the boys’ and girls’) 10% of the United States population served in uniform during WW II. Kids really, college age kids operating airplanes, tanks, jeeps, slogging through jungles, mud, landings on beaches, all to secure our “Shining City on the Hill” the beacon to this day to people to strive to come to our country and live with the blessings, that we so take for granted.

They the “Greatest Generation” and all the other wars veterans, fought the great fight for us and gave the supreme , ultimate sacrifice that we may now enjoy freedoms unimaginable to most of the rest of the World.
Then I think of the Code Pink Rally, that I saw on the Washington Mall. It was located just around the bend of the Washington monument from the WW II memorial. They were there with their “Impeach Cheany”, there with the signs “Bush Lied” “Impeach them both”. They had a pair of tables on the sidewalk on the mall with bumper stickers and buttons for sale.
See this post on who lied.
I thought, “Is this a great country or what?” What a juxtaposition, Code Pink rally within walking distance of the WW II memorial; that conflict that allowed and saved for all the “Code Pinks” and their ilk, in this country the right to assemble and say what they wanted without fear of retaliation or tanks dispersing them.

My thoughts then turned to Emmitsburg. The veterans of Emmitsburg living, who continue to serve us today, and the dead that are memorialized on the Doughboy Monument and the American Legion monuments. Also I thought “wow, just last weekend was the project to place over 500 brass markers on the graves of Veterans in all of the Emmitsburg Cemetery!”

Then I think of Emmitsburg’s living WW II veterans who continue to serve us. Two veterans who come to mind are Bob Orner and Bob Myers (there may be others). Both of them still serve us even though they are over 80 years old. They work in the Jubilee Supermarket serving the public, Mr Orner behind the deli counter and Mr Myers stocking shelves.

So if you are in Jubilee some time, give them a hug or just say “Thank you Bob” for doing what you did for us.
So to, thank any veteran you meet for their contribution to retaining our way of life. For without them and their service …………… (complete the sentence with your words and send them by going to www.contactify.com/10012 and typing in the text box) and I will publish ones I judge “fitting and proper” with your permission. The decision of the judge will be final.

Sunday Morning Hymn

April 29, 2007 at 9:18 am | In Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Methodist Hymnal page 400, 3rd Stanza

“Come thou fount of every blessing”

O to grace how great a debtor
daily I’m constrained to be
let thy goodness like a fetter
bind my wondering heart to thee
Prone to wonder Lord I feel it
Prone to leave the god I love
here’s my heart o take and seal it
seal it for thy courts above

Pastor Gary said in part referring to Zachias the hated tax collector, a rich man, sitting in a Sycamore tree, Jesus said to him ‘come down and lets go to your house’. and Jesus changed him.
Jesus was constantly reaching out to the poor, the helpless, the infirm, reaching out to the part of society that was invisible to the Priests and giving them comfort and aid.

Rock Bands can save the Planet!

April 27, 2007 at 5:08 pm | In Laying it the line ;-) | Leave a Comment

The anchoress hits it out of the park again. She suggests that all Rock tours stop immediately to save the planet from warming.

She says in part
Quote:
“I recall U2’s fun, splendidly ironic “Zoo TV” Tour of the early 1990’s. The band spent over 18 months traveling the globe in support of their fantastic album, “Achtung, Baby”, hitting all the stadiums and large venues on every continent. 157 shows. The tour boasted:

The stage…featured vidi walls, 36 video monitors, numerous television cameras, two separate mix positions, 26 on stage microphones, 176 speakers, and 11 elaborately painted Trabants, several of which were suspended over the stage with spotlights inserted into headlights, which all required 1 million watts of power to operate: enough to run 2,000 homes.

A total of 52 trucks were required to transport the 1,200 tons of equipment, 3 miles of cabling, 200 labourers, 12 forklifts and one 40-ton crane, required to construct the stage. And that was for every show.

That’s a pretty impressive bit of consumption, but let’s add into it the luxury jets (and non-luxurious staff planes) that carted U2 and their handlers, techies, roadies, belly-dancers, make-up, costumers, etc all around. Add to it the air-conditioning at the indoor venues. Add into it the trains, planes and automobiles used to transport hundreds of thousands of people to the shows. Add to it the klieg lights used for every televised interview, the trees killed to print every magazine promo and to print the $30.00 posters sold at all 157 shows. And consider if you will the souvenir teeshirts – probably stitched together in some hellish Indonesian sweatshop – that weren’t even made out of bamboo fiber! Unquote

The Blogging Mayor of Round Lake

April 26, 2007 at 6:56 am | In Emmitsburg, Laying it the line ;-) | Leave a Comment

The Blogging Mayor of Round Lake blog is 2 years old today.

I would hope that all elected officials of Emmitsburg would start blogs. Blogs would be a great way to provide a more transparent look of how Emmitsburg Government operates. I would hope that many citizens of Emmitsburg begin blogging. Let the conversation begin!

The first step is signing up for a wordpress.com blog. If anyone needs help on a wordpress blog you can email me at this site: contactify.com/2229

You Must use RSS part 2

April 24, 2007 at 4:49 pm | In Laying it the line ;-), One-liner | Leave a Comment

You have favorite websites or news blogs that you visit regularly? You want to know if anything is new on that site? Here is a a very informative video of the how and why of RSS.
See also other RSS info on this site.

The Pirates of Silicon Valley

April 23, 2007 at 9:23 pm | In Apple Inc | Leave a Comment

Here is a nice video of the movie that chronicled the rise of Microsoft and Apple

Comcast Cable vs Satellite Service

April 23, 2007 at 2:52 pm | In Emmitsburg, Frederick, Laying it the line ;-) | Leave a Comment

“Satellite is (presently) the only competitor in Frederick County to Comcast.”

With the exception of local access channels such as County govt. and Mt. St Marys and Emmitsburg public access I get (almost) every program that cable offers and programming that cable does not carry.
And the County Commissioners are seeking alternative ways to broadcast their meetings to non cable subscribers such as streaming video using broadband DSL, or storing video of their meetings on computer servers for downloading or providing DVD recordings of the meetings such as Emmitsburg Govt. is now providing.

I have been a satellite customer (Dish network) since 1996. Satellite was the only way I could get non-broadcast programming such as ESPN or HBO etc.
Frederick Cable was asked, but would not build cable to my house because cable companies only “cherry pick” the best and easiest areas to service.

Ironically cable tv companies receive much of their programming by satellite and Comcast then for example sends the signals by microwave, coax or fiber to Thurmont and Emmitsburg.

Dish Network and Direct TV have no cable or coax infrastructure needed to get the signal to homes. Comcast has typical maintenance that electric and telephone companies have such as damage to electric, telephone and cable from storms or accidents.

Dish Network service has been 99.9% perfect for me for more than 10 years. Perfect DIGITAL crystal clear picture with only an occasional extremely heavy rain causing a 5 minute outage.

FCC requirements on satellite companies do exist. These requirements as one example require condo associations and satellite installers to cooperate on the most optimium dish location on the condo.
Optimum dish location in Frederick county means having a unblocked, clear view of the south west sky at an elevation of 30-34 degrees.
(Hint: An easy way to determine a dish location at your home is find a location, on the ground if possible, with no obstructions blocking the sunlight causing a shadow at about 3:30PM. Another easy way is to look at your neighbors dish at that time of day when the sunlight is “right down the barrel” as indicated by the shadow of the receiving arm centered on the dish. Your home’s proposed dish location will be the same configuration .)

Also the FCC weighed in very strongly on a proposed merger of Dish and Direct TV.
After considerable public comment and industry comment the FCC ruled a merger would lessen competition so the answer was NO to Dish and Direct TV merging.

Cable companies have been allowed by the FCC, mega mergers and buyouts for years. The reason Comcast is so huge is the number of cable companies they have bought or merged such as the Adelphia acquisition

To summerize satellite service:
I get more programming for less money with perfect DIGITAL picture 99.9% of the time. So how is your cable service?

Sunday Morning Hymn

April 22, 2007 at 8:24 pm | In Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

From Methodist Hymnal page 576

“Rise up O men of God”

Lift high the cross of Christ,
Tread where his feet have trod,
As brothers of the Son of Man
rise up, O men of God

Arbor Day Earth Day Big Sweep

April 21, 2007 at 4:23 pm | In Emmitsburg, borderlines | Leave a Comment

The group Volunteer Frederick participated in the “Big Sweep” today. They picked refuse for about a quarter mile of Welty Road which is the North Eastern Boundry of the Town of Emmitsburg. It produced 2 pickup truck loads estimated to be about 1 ton of glass, metal and wood as well as tires. Here is a satellite map of the area.

Emmitsburg Sidewalks

April 15, 2007 at 10:30 am | In Emmitsburg, Laying it the line ;-) | 1 Comment

Main Street Project intention was to renovate Main Street underground infrastructure, add new sidewalks, new street lights, level the parking spaces and plant trees to beautify the streetscape.

The trees when small were well trimmed, easily maintained and made the street look great.
Later as they grew, trees became a liability.
1. Birds nesting in them and soiling the sidewalk.
2. Flowers blooming making a sickening stench.
4. Fruit falling and being crushed underfoot making an unsightly mess.
5. Leaves making sidewalks slick and clogging the curb drainage and fillling the stormwater traps.
6. The tree leaves block the effective range of the light from the street lamps making much of the sidewalk at night not illuminated.
7. Trees growing so big the limbs are scraping houses creating noise and possible damage from scratching or even falling.
8. And worst of all the concrete slab sidewalks being raised and ruined and creating a hazard.

As part of the sidewalk replacement propery owners were given the option to brick the sidewalk in front of their property. Also property owners were allowed to nix the planting of trees in front of their property.

The positive side of the streetscape renovation.
1. When blooming the trees are beautiful.
2. The trees shade mitigates heat from the street in summer.
3. Property owners and garden clubs plant the area around each tree with flowers or ground cover.
4. Those who chose brick sidewalks have beauty and no problems with raised concrete slabs.

In conclusion I just today noticed that the oldest brick sidewalk in Emmitsburg has been replaced by a piece of concrete.
I was going to photo document the brick before it was to be dug up. I missed and now its gone forever.
I even tried to get the Mayor (who said brick was dangerous and that the town was paying for the replacement for the property owner) and later the property owner to either save the brick or replace the brick with another new brick sidewalk.

THEY APPEAR TO HAVE OPTED FOR EXPEDIENCY RATHER THAT ESTHETICS OR PRESERVATON.

GRRRRRRR……..

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